Sunday, March 16, 2014

St. Patrick's Day Desserts

I was
hoping to have a new St. Patrick’s Day-themed recipe for you before the 17th. However, with a quick-yet-outrageous
trip to Los Angeles earlier this week in addition to furiously cranking out a round of CocoaRoar truffles for St. Paddy’s Day, I haven’t had time to explore
anything new in the kitchen. My chocolate tempering machine is purring away in
the background as I type, and as I wait for it to melt a pound of chocolate
into a beautiful glossy pool so I can dip the last few hundred truffles, I
thought I’d re-share a few St. Patrick’s Day ideas from previous entries. Of course you may just want to spend
tomorrow in your favorite Irish pub drinking Guinness or green beer. But here are a few fun holiday-themed
dessert ideas, should you need to balance out your beer and pub food intake.

This Black&White Guinness Float tastes like the most sophisticated milkshake you could ever hope
to have. Despite its velvety dark appearance, Guinness stout is surprisingly light
and frothy, making it a natural pairing with ice cream, and this beer float plays up both the deep chocolate notes and the
creamy quality of the Guinness.Sign me up, please.

The
Guinness Gingerbread Cake is still one of the best cakes to ever come out of my
kitchen, which I originally made for Sylvia’s birthday bash two years ago.
(Happy birthday, Syl!) The cake is fragrant with spices (ginger, cinnamon,
nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, and even a little dry mustard for heat!), deepened
with Guinness for complexity, and the flavors all come together beautifully
with a vanilla cream cheese frosting.

None of us could get enough of this cake, which might explain why I ended up making the cake for friends four times within a month!

If you
want something appropriately green, these Matcha Green Tea Truffles fit the
bill.Made with white chocolate
and dipped in bittersweet, the filling turns a brilliant green by the addition
of matcha green tea powder.

Both green tea and chocolate are reported to be excellent sources of antioxidants, so I think of these truffles as having good health benefits!

I hear my tempering machine beeping, so it’s time to go back
to the kitchen and dip these little green beauties. I wish you a happy St. Patrick’s Day and I raise my Guinness to you all!